


Lie to me

by pastelserpent



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crushes, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, F/M, Jealousy, Metamorphmagus, Mutual Pining, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23965186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastelserpent/pseuds/pastelserpent
Summary: “you could make him jealous,” Evie – one of our roommates – suggested, having been told about the whole situation, “what good would that do?” I muttered, I had managed to keep control of my hair for a little while, and it was staying silver more than ever before, but I was still prone to the occasional slip up. “it might make him jealous,” she replied simply, curling out a strand of her sandy coloured hair, “she has a point, you know,” Lily mused, nudging Opal off her bed.Opal glared at Lily, before launching herself onto my bed, settling down on the blanket at the end of it, “and how would I do that?” I asked dubiously.*1st person perspective** hope you like it :)
Relationships: Remus Lupin/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 69





	Lie to me

I seriously needed to get new friends.

I told myself this at the start of every new academic year, and the start of every term, but I really needed to do it this time. 

“Sirius, I swear to Merlin, if you do not stop that, I will hex you into a million small pieces,” I threatened him as we wove our way through the throngs of students, and eventually made our way onto the train. Having dumped our luggage, Sirius lead us through the students until we reached the cabin that the Marauders commandeered (don’t ask how) a few years ago – and no one bothered to try and take it back off them (probably out of fear of retaliation) – Lupin and Potter were already inside, having a conversation in hushed tones.

“if you wanted your conversation to be private,” I muttered under my breath as Sirius stepped into the compartment, “you should have shut the door,” I leaned against the door, watching silently as the boys greeted Sirius. “is Lily not here?” I took in the compartment noticing the absence of my best friend – and Potter’s girlfriend, “no,” Potter stated, “I’ll go and find her,” I stated getting the distinct feeling that whatever they wanted to discuss, they didn’t want me around for. 

As soon as I’d turned to walk down the train, I heard Potter tell Sirius in hushed – but not quiet enough tones – “Lupin’s got a crush,” managing to stay composed, I wove through yet more students running around, until I was at practically the opposite end of the train.

In an almost empty compartment, Lily Evans was sat with a cat on her lap, reading her book which was hovering just above the cat in question. “Lily,” she looked up, and smiled at my appearance, gesturing for me to enter, I slid into the compartment, sliding the door shut behind me, and looked over her. Lily was beautiful, there was no denying that, and puberty almost always seemed to work in her favour, she had grown taller (couldn’t relate), her face had slimmed down, but she was still brilliantly kind Lily Evans. 

“green isn’t a good colour on you,” she stated gesturing to my usually silver hair, which had tinged a dark shade of green on the walk to find her, “I don’t suspect it is,” I hummed in agreement, settling opposite her, allowing her cat – Opal – to settle on my lap. “what happened?” she asked gently, putting her book on the empty seat next to her, “oh nothing much, if you don’t count the fact – I heard the boys saying Lupin has a crush.”

Lily sucked in a breath of air, glancing at me anxiously, “do you know who it is?” I shrugged loosely, “probably some Hufflepuff,” Gryffindors were supposed to be nice towards the other houses but there were always exceptions – just like how some Gryffindors hated Slytherins, I wasn’t particularly keen on the house of the badger, especially not when it was who most of the Marauders raved about wanting to date. 

She didn’t chastise me for my comment, and instead reached across to scratch behind Opal’s ears, “oh honey I'm sorry, what are you going to do?” she asked calmly, “I’d start with getting your hair back to silver,” I sighed, gently stroking Opal, “it will go back eventually,” her eyebrow rose silently, “I'm going to pretend I don’t know, I'm going to try and be nice, and if all that fails, I'm going to avoid the living daylights out of him,” she nodded slowly, “I’ll help you.” I smiled at her, watching as she gathered her items, “we’ve given them enough time to discuss it, it’s probably safe to go back now,” I nodded slowly, lifting Opal into my arms, I cradled her against my chest and stood up.

Lily lead the way back to the Marauders’ compartment, checking on me every few minutes to make sure I hadn’t disappeared, “it’s fine Lils, I’ll keep it together,” she nodded disbelievingly, but my hair had gone back to silver, so at very least – only my actions would suggest whether something was up, rather than my appearance. “just shout if you need anything,” she slid open the Marauders’ compartment, 

Peter had appeared at some point, and was sat hunched against the window opposite Lupin. The middle seats were taken by Sirius and Potter, leaving me and Lily the seats closest to the door – not that I was complaining, Lily took the seat next to Potter, opposite Sirius, while I sat next to him, watching in amusement as Opal hissed at him. Potter shut the door with a flick of his wand, all but pulling Lily onto his lap, she giggled settling onto it, while the rest of us pretended not to see what had become a regular enough action.

Opal continued to sit in my lap for the journey, hissing occasionally at Sirius, who sat next to me grumbling about the ‘fur ball,’ when at long last Hogwarts came into view, I glanced across to Lily – who had also noticed. “me and y/n need to get Opal settled before the meal, save us seats,” she ordered, Potter’s eyebrow rose in confusion, “girl stuff,” Lily added – it was enough to make him pull a face, and turn away, I glanced across at Lily and rolled my eyes, she smirked, turning back to look out of the window. 

We climbed off the train and into the carriages easily, the Marauders joined us, but were too engrossed in their conversation to notice anything about how both of us were glancing anxiously out of the window – or at least, most of them were. “are you ok?” Lupin asked me, as I shifted Opal in my lap for what must have been the tenth time in the last few minutes, “fine,” I answered coolly, resisting the urge to ask which Hufflepuff had won his heart. 

Green really wasn’t a good colour on me. 

He seemed slightly alarmed at the sharpness of my answer, but didn’t press, and instead turned back to the rest of the Marauders – who were plotting, as it turned out, to get revenge on Snape and his cronies – something which I would usually be against, but my mind was too full of thoughts for me to focus on anything else for more than a moment.

The castle came into view, and within a moment of the carriage stopping, Lily was out of the carriage, me beside her, Opal still sheltered in my arms, “we’ll meet you,” she told the boys flippantly, grabbing my hand, and hurrying us along to the Gryffindor common room, leaving four very confused boys behind us. 

Once we had reached the common room, we hurried into the dorm, setting Opal down on Lily’s bed, “are you not going to ask?” she asked quietly as she set a charm on the room to stop Opal escaping – it had been known to happen – and resulted in the Marauders looking for her for weeks. I shook my head as we began walking back down to the hall, “no, I'm not going to, I don’t think I’d like the answer,” we made it into the hall with the last of the stragglers from the carriages, and settled next to the boys, and several of our dorm mates. 

The sorting ceremony was over quickly, and everyone delved into the food in front of them, my eyes roamed over the Hufflepuff table, questioning which one Lupin had a crush on. “your hair is green again,” Lily muttered to me, attempting not to draw the attention of the Marauders, I regained control on my thoughts, and she nodded when my hair was back to silver. 

For the rest of the meal, conversation was kept to a minimum, until we were finally allowed back to our common rooms, upon releasing everyone to their common room, Lily grabbed my arm, “we need to get good seats,” she practically ran – dragging me behind her – back to the common room, and proceeded to push half of the first years out of the way. Not that I was complaining. 

Once inside the common room, she grabbed two of the biggest sofas closest to the fire, and spread across one, while I sat on the other, tucking my legs up next to me. “so that’s why you disappeared,” Potter commented sitting down beside her, nodding knowingly, our dorm mates and the rest of the Marauders settled on the spare seats, and our evening continued in an easy fashion, “and Moony got a prefect position!” Sirius announced to the group. 

The others cheered loudly, and while I attempted to, any cheers would have been drowned out by Sirius, Potter and Peter, “well done,” I muttered, turning back to the book that Lily had leant me, “thanks,” he mumbled carefully, trying to read my expression. It took a while for the common room to empty, as many of the first years still wanted to explore, but eventually they filtered out, followed by the second and third years, Lily gestured towards the dorms, and I nodded, getting to my feet along with our dormmates.

We said a quick goodnight to everyone, before disappearing into the red and gold room that was our dorm – that was somehow already really untidy. Opal was still settled on Lily’s bed, and had fallen asleep, small snores echoed around the room, and we all crept around, careful not to wake her as we got ready for bed. And then finally, the day was over, and we found ourselves tucked up in bed, drifting into sleep.

…………

Something I hated about returning to Hogwarts was that no matter how early you got up, the birds were almost always up before you, and would sing so loudly that once you had woken up, the chances of going back to sleep were slim. Today was one of those mornings, we had been back at Hogwarts a couple of weeks, I had taken to avoiding Lupin – and as he thought we were all still none the wiser to what exactly he was feeling in regards to some lucky girl (who wasn’t me unfortunately) – it was surprisingly easy. 

Avoiding him during school hours was easy for the main reason that I knew his timetable off by heart, and the Marauders were only hard to find when they were using Potter’s invisibility cloak. “you could make him jealous,” Evie – one of our roommates – suggested, having been told about the whole situation, “what good would that do?” I muttered, I had managed to keep control of my hair for a little while, and it was staying silver more than ever before, but I was still prone to the occasional slip up. “it might make him jealous,” she replied simply, curling out a strand of her sandy coloured hair, “she has a point, you know,” Lily mused, nudging Opal off her bed.

Opal glared at Lily, before launching herself onto my bed, settling down on the blanket at the end of it, “and how would I do that?” I asked dubiously, I wasn’t above testing the waters – and jealousy would be a sure-fire way to get answers. “easy,” Lily stated, reaching for my jewellery box, and flipping the lid open, she pulled out one of my rings with a particularly large stone in it, “we’ll just pretend some guy gave it to you over the holidays, but you need to keep your hair from tinging blonde,” whenever I lied – especially to someone I was close with, my hair would tinge blonde – which if the person knew me well enough, was an easy telling sign. 

“I’ll do my best,” Lily handed me the ring, and I slid it onto my middle finger on my left hand, “it should catch him out,” Evie stated, nodded satisfied with her idea, “now come on, I want to test this!” with that, the three of us – as our fourth roommate wasn’t close with us – hurried out of the dorm, and down to the great hall. I silently calmed myself, making sure my hair was the perfect silver shade that it should have been, before sliding into our seats – this time I was next to Sirius, while Potter was sat opposite him, with Lupin on the other side of him.

Lily slid in opposite me, and nodded surreptitiously to Evie who was next to her, “say y/n, where did you get that ring?” I glanced up from where I had been pouring a glass of juice, “this one?” I asked holding up my left hand, watching as four sets of Marauder eyes followed my hand to look at the ring. Evie nodded attempting to hide a smile, “a ‘friend’ gave it to me over the holidays,” Lily and Evie both had their lips pressed together tightly, watching for any reaction from the Marauders – which I was more than a tad dubious for, “that boy from diagon alley?” Sirius questioned; his eyebrow rose. 

I thought back to the boy he was referring to, and nodded simply, deciding that as Sirius spent so much time around me, he would find it easiest to pick up on whether or not I was lying. “wow, didn’t have you down as the type to accept gifts from strangers,” Potter mused, crunching down on a piece of bacon, I rolled my eyes at him, watching as Lily lightly slapped him around the head. 

“I doubt she did,” Lupin spoke up for the first time since we had sat down, and my eyes snapped over to him, along with Lily and Evie, “you wouldn’t accept gifts so easily, I remember in the third year when I brought you that book you’d been going on about for months, and it took two months for you to accept it and even then you complained about receiving gifts.”

I glanced at him – not having expected him to bring up any memories, “people change,” he shrugged, ignoring the curious looks around us, holding my eyeline, I glared at him slightly, before turning away and flipping my hair, which had just started to show blonde highlights. “keep it together,” Evie hissed as the blonde faded back out of my hair, once breakfast was over, we scurried along to potions – with Slughorn – by far my least favourite teacher. 

By the time we reached his classroom, the blonde had completely faded out of my hair, and I settled in my seat next to Lily, “I'm sorry ladies, but I'm going to separate you today,” Slughorn mused – in what he assumed was a kindly manner but came across more patronising – “you see I need to split up those four,” he gestured to where the Marauders were stood behind him, “now Evans, as you have a good relationship with Potter, I'm going to ask you to sit next to him, and y/l/n, don’t look so worried, I'm not going to put you next to Black or Petigrew…”

My eyes flickered to where Lupin was stood awkwardly talking with the other three, “and of course Mr Lupin is very talented, as are you, so I will put him next to you,” I swallowed slowly, attempting to stop various comments coming out of my mouth, and nodded silently, watching uncomfortably as Slughorn relayed the same information to the Marauders. Lily gave me a sympathetic smile, slipping into the seat directly in front of me, “I’ll be here to rescue you,” she assured me, as I tidied my things onto my side of the desk, “you better be,” I muttered in return, turning away as Lupin walked over to the desk and sat down beside me. 

Once the less had begun, I focused on taking notes, keeping firmly away from Lupin, “you lied this morning,” he murmured when Slughorn’s back was turned, I straightened up, my quill stilling, and turned to him, shooting a scathing look, “did I? I don’t recall lying,” he rolled his eyes, checking that Slughorn wasn’t looking. “yeah you did, your hair turned blonde, it only does that when you are lying, that ring wasn’t given to you by some boy in diagon alley,” he stated, gesturing to the ring on my finger.

“why would you care Lupin? It’s not like it affects you either way,” the end of the lesson was called, and without looking at him, I packed away my things, stuffing them into my bag, “it does affect me,” he murmured, and I rolled my eyes silently – biting back saying what I had wanted to say for years, “it doesn’t affect you, there are plenty of girls vying for your attention,” my eyes dampened slightly at admitting it, but I pushed on, aware my hair had probably turned blue. 

I couldn’t look back at him, having nothing more to say, instead I grabbed my bag and hurriedly walked out of the classroom, I pushed my way through the crowds, stopping off in one of the bathrooms along the way. Just like I had anticipated, my hair had turned completely blue – a dark ocean blue, with light blue streaks, and it took all of my self-control to will it back to silver, I stayed in the bathroom a few more minutes, not caring if I was late to muggle studies, I was the professor’s favourite, and I could always say I had been feeling unwell and had to stop for a moment – which wasn’t too far from the truth.

Collecting myself – and my broken heart off the floor – I hurried out of the bathroom and along to muggle studies. Half the class was already there, but as the professor was so relaxed I had no qualms about sliding into an empty seat near the back of the room, sliding out my books, I hurried to catch up with the notes I had missed, before starting to scribble down the new notes – until having had enough of writing – I cast a quick spell on my wand, allowing it to take the rest of my notes for me. 

“and unrequited love,” the professor was still talking, “is where you love someone, but they do not feel the same way – or in muggle terms, do not reciprocate,” I huffed quietly, making a mental note to pop by the library and get a muggle book on getting over unrequited love. Many students hated muggle studies claiming it was boring and irrelevant, but I found it strangely interesting, and paid attention until the last moment, before folding up my books and work. 

The library was only a short walk from the classroom, and with lunch approaching, I had enough time to pop in, walking over to the muggle book section, I dumped my bag on the floor, and summoned a stool to stand on in order to reach the top shelves – the library shelves were high, and being short didn’t help matters.

Stepping onto the stool, my eyes roamed across the bookshelves until I eventually came across a section of books on muggle love, and more importantly unrequited love, sighing I stretched up on my toes to reach for the spine of the final book – ‘unrequited love and how to cope’ – just as my fingers were about to reach it, someone else knocked my fingers out of the way, and pulled the book off the shelf, I turned to huff at the person only to fall silent. 

“'nrequited love and how to cope’?” Lupin questioned, still holding the book, “muggle studies,” I muttered scrambling off the stool and sending it away, so that I was stood less than a metre from him ,“pretty sure that unrequited love isn’t on the curriculum,” he commented, “extra reading,” I mumbled collecting my bag from where I had tossed it.

Lupin nodded slowly, handing me the book, his eyes flicked to my hair, before back down to meet my eyes, “your hair is pink,” he commented, keeping his face blank of expression and emotion, “thanks for getting this down,” I muttered, keeping my own face as blank as his, and avoiding answering what he had said, I clutched the book to my chest, glancing back at Lupin one last time before walking over to the librarian, and checking the book out. 

I walked out of the library, and down towards the common room, my afternoon lessons were study periods, so I could just hide in the common room to complete my notes, hurrying into the dorm, I placed the book and my bag next to my bed, sliding the ring off my finger and back into the jewellery box, before walking back out and down to the hall for food. My hair had gone back to silver, and I seriously hoped Lupin had never read a book on what the various hair colours meant, the hall was already packed, and I slipped in between Sirius and Evie, who were already eating when I arrived. 

No one questioned my lateness, the same way no one questioned when a Hufflepuff girl walked up to the table and rested her hand on Lupin’s shoulder, my eyes flicked to Lily’s, just as my hair tinged green, “would you try and keep it under control, that green is horrendously bright,” Sirius hissed from beside me.

“I would love to, but I can’t control it anymore, it does whatever it wants,” I hissed back, Potter’s eyes flicked between Lupin and his Hufflepuff, and then towards my hair and Sirius’ facial expression. “you said you’d got a hold on it already,” he reminded me softly, and I shook my head, “I had, but I don’t have the control on it anymore, over the last few weeks its done whatever it wants to,” his eyebrow rose, before he leaned into me, 

“you must think we are oblivious, when are you going to tell him?” he picked up a strand of my hair, and wove it round his finger while I glared daggers at the Hufflepuff, “ok, well, hopefully we’ll meet up tonight,” she giggled falsely, before turning her attention to the rest of the table. “hi, I'm Jessica,” I shared a look with Sirius, just as my hair changed colour again, tinging a dark blood red, “no one cares,” I muttered pushing the plate of food away from me, Potter glanced over to Lily and then towards me, Lily shook her head and he nodded slowly, turning back to his food. 

The Hufflepuff finally took the hint and walked off, but not without me shooting her a final dark glare, “y/n,” Sirius drew me out of my thoughts and I looked up to meet his eye, “you don’t look well, do you need to go to the hospital wing?” I shook my head quickly, avoiding meeting everyone else’s eyes. “I'm fine,” I murmured, settling for just drinking some water, “your hair would suggest otherwise,” Potter commented, gesturing to where my hair was fading back into silver, 

“ignore it,” I muttered fiddling with the bracelet around my wrist, “y/n, your hair still isn’t silver,” Peter murmured gently from where he was sitting. I smiled weakly at him, tucking a stray strand behind my ear, “it takes a while to change back,” I mumbled glancing across at Lily who was sat with her arms folded over her chest, an expression of irritation stretched across her face.

“bloody oblivious,” she muttered, glaring across at Lupin, “and for your information Lupin, Hannah’s a snob,” without another look, she tugged on my sleeve, “you have study period now, let’s go,” I nodded, getting up from the table. I fell into step beside her as we walked out of the hall, “I'm going to hex some sense into him if he isn’t careful,” she muttered darkly as we walked up to the common room, gathering our books, we settled in a far corner of the room where there were several desks. 

“have you ever changed your full appearance,” she asked setting out her transfiguration book in front of us, “nope, I only change small things when I want to – or at least I used to,” she smiled, flicking to a page in the book on metamorphmagus, “what about animal ears?” I sighed at her smiling face, picturing puppy ears, “wow,” she murmured as they easily appeared in my hair. “ruff,” someone teased from behind me, ruffling my hair, and then scratching the ears, I turned to scowl at Sirius, making the ears disappear before he could try and stroke them again.

“you aren’t funny,” he smirked, “on the contrary, I think I'm hilarious,” I rolled my eyes as he sat down next to us at the table, “well I don’t think you are,” he smirked glancing towards the windows, “it’s nearly a full moon,” I huffed quietly – me and Lily were both well informed about Lupin’s furry problem, “I couldn’t care less,” both Lily and Sirius’ eyebrows rose disbelievingly, “you do, you just need to tell him that,” I scoffed, turning away from Sirius to scribble down a series of notes. 

“I'm not telling him crap, he’s the one with a crush on some stupid Hufflepuff,” I hissed, Sirius stared at me in confusion, “you think he’s got a crush on a Hufflepuff?” the disbelief was evident in his tone, “I know he does, why else would Hannah have been all over him at lunch?” Sirius shook his head with a sigh, “the sooner you talk to him, the better,” I rolled my eyes at him, settling to take some final notes on transfiguration, “I'm not going to talk to him,” I insisted, shutting the book, before taking out a spare piece of parchment.

“what if I want to talk to you?” Lupin asked from behind me, I turned in my chair to face him, “who said I want to talk to you?” Lupin looked across to Sirius, who nodded, “you aren’t going to get her to go off her own will,” Sirius gently pushed me in the chair, and Lupin held out his hand, which I ignored, he rolled his eyes, grabbing my hand, and pulled me to my feet. “we can do this the easy way, or the hard way,” I glared up at him, but followed him silently to an empty part of the common room, 

he sat easily on one end of the sofa, while I perched silently on the arm at the other end, “Lupin, as far as I can tell, we have nothing to talk about,” his eyebrow rose, and I fell silent, watching his movements closely. “you know what time of the month it is right?” I nodded silently, “then you’ll know I'm more impulsive,” I waited for him to continue, huddling inside my robes as a chill went down my spine at the look, he was giving me.

“I think we have a lot to talk about, for starters why you think I've got a crush on some Hufflepuff, and then why you have no control over your ability,” I stared at him in silence for a moment, my hair tinging pink as his gaze focused on me, “I heard the boys talking on the train about you having a crush,” I admitted finally, “and you all, always say how much you like Hufflepuffs, so it makes sense, and Hannah was all over you just now, she literally had her hands all over you.” 

I didn’t look up at him, and instead focused my gaze on my hands which were sat in my lap – and were suddenly very interesting, “and why do you have no control over your ability?” he prompted, “because my emotions override my control, you know this Lupin,” I told him looking up at him. “why can’t you control them?” he asked probingly, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, “you of all people should know why I can’t,” I mumbled.

He reached forward, until he was sat directly next to the arm I was perched on, even sitting on the arm, he was still the same height as me, and placed a finger under my chin, “your hair has tinged pink again,” he murmured, gently lifting me off the arm and onto his lap. “I don’t like any Hufflepuff girl like that, I like you,” I was rendered speechless, staring at him in shock, “I like you,” he repeated, running a hand gently through my pink hair, “and it’s pretty obvious that you like me too,” I opened my mouth to say something, but closed it again when I couldn’t think of anything. 

“it’s not fair,” I muttered, gently running a hand through his hair, “you get to be so smooth and I jump to conclusions,” he chuckled quietly, “true, but I like you regardless, so why should it matter?” he leaned in close to me, but I leant back at the last moment, “what about Hannah?” he shook his head, but one look at my raised eyebrow had him taking a deep breath to begin speaking again. “she was talking about prefect rounds,” my eyebrow rose further, praying that that wasn’t some form of innuendo, “she doesn’t like me,” he promised, wrapping an arm around my waist, “good, you’re mine,” I mumbled, taking a grip on his collar and pulling him towards me, pressing my lips down on his.

His lips moved easily against mine, his hands falling to clutch at my waist, while my hands kept his face pressed against mine, and the background filled with wolf whistles from Sirius. One of his hands wrapped itself into my hair, tinging the last of it pink, “yes Moony!” Sirius yelled, “I'm going to have to silence him,” I muttered pulling back from Lupin, who smiled at me, “I guess you’ll have to get used to my impulsiveness now,” he murmured, trailing a hand down the inside of my wrist. Half of the common room were staring at us in confusion but I ignored them, instead smiling at the man in front of me, “mhmm,” he smirked, curling a strand of pink hair around his finger, “I knew you liked me.”

The soppy end :)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!
> 
> Another piece completed! I have some other pieces in the works but they may take slightly longer - so I might upload slightly slower this coming week, but I'll do my best. Hope you are all staying safe and feeling ok :)
> 
> Byeeeeeeeeee - see you on the next one :)


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